A Grimm Tale
by STARCRUSHER99
Summary: "This monster you've created is gonna change the world. Problem is, the hell I have in mind isn't exactly ideal for such a fragile snow angel like you. Believe me when I say that all this is is me sparing you the pain. Your friends, though? They're tougher than you'll ever be. I look forward to breaking them."
1. A Grimm Beginning

**A/N: Reviews are much appreciated.**

* * *

To say that Jaune's life had taken a bad turn would have been the understatement of the century.

It had started out innocently enough. Pyrrha had gone with him into the city to visit the forge. He had said that he didn't need her to come, but when she all but begged there was no way he could say no.

He never could say no to Pyrrha.

After they got his shield fixed, they realized that they would miss the last bullhead to Beacon if they didn't run back right then. To save time, they cut through some of the allies, which is how they ran into none other than Roman Torchwick.

After a long and intense fight (to the surprise of everyone there, Jaune lasted a full ten minutes), Torchwick finally managed to overpower Pyrrha and stab her with Jaune's sword before seemingly shattering like glass.

Jaune frantically called for help from Beacon, and they were there almost immediately. His hopes were dashed, however, when he learned that the injuries that she sustained would put her in a coma.

That's when everything spiraled out of control.

A video leaked to the local news showing Jaune and Pyrrha fighting, ending with Jaune stabbing Pyrrha himself. The fact that Jaune's sword was the one used wasn't helpful at all.

No one believed Jaune's story, not even his so called 'friends'. Torchwick had covered his tracks perfectly: no witnesses, the fake video, even the security camera footage from nearby stores had been tampered with.

Ozpin and Glynda were the only ones who stayed by Jaune's side through the whole thing, although he also got a letter from someone named "Qrow" stating his support. They believed that even if he had the capability to hurt Pyrrha, he never would. The council's response? Ozpin was removed as headmaster of Beacon Academy, with Glynda stepping down from her job as a result. Qrow, against his will, was promoted to headmaster in his place.

Without Ozpin to resist, Ironwood was able to steamroll over Qrow and bring his entire army into the kingdom for the festival. The majority of the civilian populace didn't mind and in fact welcomed the protection after having seen Pyrrha Nikos of all people put into a coma.

Jaune, meanwhile, was found guilty of attempted murder of a huntress and was sentenced to life without parole after a two month trial process. As he was being escorted out of Beacon, he wasn't surprised to find his 'friends', the people he could never forgive, waiting for him.

Ruby was first. "How could you do this Jaune? Why? Why?!" She was bawling her eyes out, and he would've felt guilty if he wasn't wondering what he'd done to earn this much distrust.

Weiss was next. "You were jealous of having such an amazing partner, weren't you? Well guess what? Now you'll just accomplish even less then if you hadn't gone to prison. I didn't even think that was possible." Jaune had absolutely no idea how she got that conclusion.

Blake was completely silent, not even looking up from her book.

Yang went to punch him, but stopped at the last second, mumbling a "you're not worth it" before comforting her sister. Honestly, that one hurt the most of all of them.

Ren and Nora were both holding each other, with Nora crying into Ren's chest while Ren gave him a look that showed only hatred.

As the soldiers hauled him past them onto the waiting airship, he had one parting gift for them: "What have I done to deserve this distrust?! WHAT HAVE I DONE TO YOU?!"

With that, the door closed, a needle was injected into his neck, and he was knocked out.

He woke up, naked, in what could only be described as a throne room; a big hall with glass windows that went all the way to the ceiling, complete with a chandelier, with a long table in front of a chair worthy of a king.

Or, based on who was sitting in it, a Queen.

Finding that he was bound to the floor, he tried to thrash around enough to remove the bonds, but that only attracted the attention of the woman on the throne.

"You're awake." Hearing the voice made Jaune stop. Her appearance wasn't much to go by, but she definitely didn't look human.

Bone white skin, with blackened veins running across her face and arms, with blood red eyes. White hair, spread in a bun that screamed "evil", wearing a black robe with hints of red. Frankly, hearing a human voice confused him more than anything else. The voice was also enough to cause the doors to open, letting in three people that he recognized because of team RWBY.

"Cinder? Mercury? Emerald? What's going on?" These people were supposed to be exchange students from Haven! What the hell are they doing with whatever this being is?

"Now is not the time for questions, Jaune. My name is Salem, and we have business to attend to. Mercury." The gray haired teen moved forward, injecting him with another sedative that was just strong enough to make him numb, before untying his bonds and throwing him over his shoulder.

Unable to resist, he was forced to watch as he was dragged into what was best called hell.

It was a complete barren wasteland, with rocky terrain and enormous purple crystals sprouting from the ground. The sky was even red to complete the hellish look the place had going for it. The only way he knew he was even on Remnant was the broken moon, still in the sky.

And that's not even mentioning the Grimm.

They were everywhere, of all different types and ages. Ursas, Beowolfs, Deathstalkers, Nevermores, all of them were there. Running around, flying, some just sitting and watching.

And, now that he looked closer, some were coming out of the ground itself.

What looked like tar pits littered the entire ground everywhere they walked, and the Grimm were coming out of them. Dear God. **This is where the Grimm come from.**

They finally stopped walking and Mercury threw him onto the ground.

"Now, in case you couldn't figure it out, this is where my Grimm are made." Jaune noticed the way Salem said 'my'. "We've had some... difficulties finding a test subject for an experiment of mine, but now that we have you, we may begin." And with that, Cinder kicked him into the spawner.

It was the most intense pain he'd ever felt in his life. It felt like he was getting ripped apart by blades on every part of his body. He tried to scream, but that only let the liquid inside and made it hurt even more. He could feel his insides moving, as well as protrusions on both his upper and lower back. His bones became harder and his fingers briefly became pincers before they changed back. And these were only a fraction of the changes he could feel.

Whether it was 5 minutes or 500 years Jaune couldn't tell, but his insides finally calmed down and the pain faded away. Not only that, but he could breathe the liquid like he had gills. While he was content to simply stay down there until he died from starvation, Salem had already reached in and grabbed him.

He was ripped out of the spawner and thrown to the ground right in front of Emerald. He looked up at her, hoping for an explanation, but all he got was her taking a picture on her scroll with a smirk on her face.

Mercury and Cinder yanked him up to his feet, forcing him to stand even though he still couldn't feel his legs. He couldn't even react in time to the scroll thrown at him, with Mercury having to catch it and force it into his hands in front of his face.

What he saw terrified him.

It was clearly the picture that Emerald had just taken, and he was completely unrecognizable. His skin had turned a deathly pale white, his veins turning black in a way that was not unlike Salem's. All of his hair had turned jet black, making him look like he had fur. A liquid was running through his veins, probably the liquid he'd just swallowed, and wherever it went he could feel his body changing to accommodate it.

But his eyes - blood red, the eyes of the Grimm - were what scared him the most. They looked as though no matter what emotion was on his face, his eyes would only show hatred.

He finally let his body give in to what it wanted, and passed out right there.

When he woke up, he was in another unfamiliar place, but this time it was much less luxurious. It seemed to be a cabin, and while small, it was a cozy place. There was furniture such as couches and chairs in what he assumed was the living room, with a fireplace roaring next to a large stack of wood. There was no food, as far as he could tell, but, looking outside, he realized he wasn't hungry after at least 12 hours of not eating.

He was confused, wondering if it was all a dream, until he looked down at his hand and saw how white his skin was. That's what did it for him. **This is real... what the fuck did she do to me?!**

His musings, and terror, were cut off when he heard a vibration coming from one of the chairs. Investigating, he noticed a scroll, not his own, was sitting on the arm of the chair, saying he was getting a call from an unknown number. Knowing who it probably was, he picked up the scroll. Salem's face appearing was not a surprise at all.

"Hello, Jaune." The way she talked was like she was talking to an old friend. **How is she so casual? What is she?!** "Before you say anything, know that I won't hear you. You're comments will fall on deaf ears. Now, let's talk business." The way she said business sent shivers up his spine.

"Take this scroll and walk outside. There are some things you need to know."

Sitting below the CCT in the Beacon vault, Ozpin and Glynda had a lot of things to think about.

 **First Ms. Nikos is put in a coma, then Mr. Arc gets the blame, then Qrow takes my place, and now Mr. Arc's missing? There has to be a reason for all of this.**

He'd had his suspicions from the very beginning that there was something much bigger happening then Pyrrha's attempted murder. Unfortunately for him, he had failed to see just how much bigger until the council had removed him from his position as Headmaster. It was not until then that he realized just how much he'd played into his enemies hands.

Luckily for him, despite Ironwood being able to bring in even more forces than he would've if Ozpin was still Headmaster, Qrow had let Ozpin and Glynda stay on campus inside the vault. In his own words: "Beacon needs its wizard, Oz. Besides, we both know you'd end up manipulating everything anyway."

Thus, with nothing to do other than monitor Amber's health and make sure it doesn't start to fall, he had nothing else to do but think.

 **Why would they specifically target Mr. Arc? Ms. Nikos makes sense, she's a celebrity, but aside from his lineage Mr. Arc was a relative nobody. He needed fake transcripts for heaven's sakes.**

Ozpin was well aware of Jaune's transcripts. After all, it would've been stupid of him to forget when he had Qrow give them to him in the first place.

 **Such potential taken away from him, but why?**

He was cut off when the elevator opened and Qrow, in all his alcoholic glory, walked in. "Still thinking about the Arc kid?"

Ozpin could only nod. "I still can not understand why they would target him. They are not the kind of people to do things without reason."

Qrow took a swig of his flask, making Glynda step back due to the smell. "I get what you're saying. In all honesty, it's been bugging me too."

"You mean to say you actually care about something?"

"Of course I care, Glynda." There was a surprising amount of anger in his tone that sent both Glynda and Ozpin back a step. "If what we think is true, than this kid got his entire life fucked up by a literal Queen of evil. I wouldn't-"

He was cut off when Ozpin's scroll buzzed. All three of them froze, knowing that any texts that Ozpin would receive now could only bring more bad news. Hesitantly, Ozpin grabbed his scroll and opened it. He couldn't stop his heart from racing when he saw who texted.

Salem.

They'd had many conversations since she'd converted, mostly him trying to show her the light again. She'd always tried to show Ozpin that humanity was a curse that needed to die, with Ozpin trying to show her that humanity wasn't as evil as she thought it was.

She had never started a conversation, however, making him of all people scared of what he could find.

His fears were completely justified. He almost dropped his scroll in shock. The other two noticed his reaction and looked over his shoulder, where they adopted similar expressions of shock and sadness.

The text was nothing more than a picture. It was a picture of Jaune, but with his new look, Ozpin couldn't help but realize how much he looked like Salem, and that only could only mean one thing.

She had transformed him. Another bright soul lost to the darkness.

They all reached that conclusion at around the same time, and that's when their reactions hit. Glynda actually started crying, leaving Ozpin to comfort her as best he could, while Qrow tipped his flask as far as he could to chug his alcohol as fast as possible.

While he was doing that, his scroll got a text as well. Already tired of everything that had happened in the past two minutes, he whipped it out and opened it as fast as he could. Relief hit his features.

"As bad as the timing is, I finally have some good news. Pyrrha's starting to wake up." That got their attention. "Ready to see if we were right?" They both nodded, and after Glynda dried her eyes they got on the elevator to go upstairs.

However, all three of them had the same thought on their mind: **I don't know if I want to be right.**

The process was a very painful one. While she was waking up, Pyrrha could feel all the damage she took in the fight. It was quite a shock for team RWBY and the Renora pair, waiting for her to wake up, when she simply started screaming and thrashing out of absolute nowhere.

They quickly surrounded her and held her down, with Blake calling for a nurse. One came quickly enough, giving her a sedative that numbed her pain without knocking her out. It took effect very slowly, but after about 5 minutes she had finally calmed down.

Despite not feeling pain, she could still barely move, so it took another 5 minutes before she could even open her eyes. When she did, she could see six of her friends waiting for her by her bedside. **Wait, why six?**

Immediately, she was dragged into a surprisingly gentle hug by Nora and Ruby, both of whom were bawling their eyes out from sheer happiness. Looking around, she could see everyone else had a similar look of happiness. She started to smile, then realized a key issue:

Jaune wasn't there.

As fast as her body could allow, she started searching left and right, hoping to see that familiar mop of blonde hair. But alas, he was nowhere to be found. **Is he...?**

The thought of Jaune dying was enough to make her shoot up in bed, against her body's wishes, knocking the two small girls off of her while she was at it. She tried to talk, but realized that her throat was the driest it had ever been.

Weiss realized what was happening and gave her a glass of water, one that was downed in mere seconds by the dehydrated redhead. Finally she was able to voice her concern in a croaky voice: "where's Jaune?"

"We were hoping you could answer that."

She looked to her right, and saw Ozpin, Glynda, and the man she recognized as Ruby's uncle Qrow were standing in the doorway. Despite everyone else clearly scowling at them, something that confused Pyrrha greatly, Ruby rocketed towards her uncle.

However, in a display that shocked them all, Qrow grabbed Ruby's head before she could hug him, gently pushing her to the side in a way that clearly said 'not now'. She looked sad, but didn't fight it.

Ozpin entered the room, ignoring the angry looks everyone else gave him, and walked to Pyrrha's bedside, kneeling next to her. "Pyrrha, what do you remember of the attack?"

Pyrrha, trying her best to stay awake, answered as much as she can: "All I can really remember is being stabbed. What happened?"

Yang scoffed and spoke up. "What happened is your ass of a partner-" she was cut off by Qrow extending his weapon.

Yang looked terrified and shocked that he would pull his weapon, but she let him explain. "She didn't ask you. Let him answer." The pure anger in his voice shocked Yang even more and left no room for argument.

"What did she mean 'ass of a partner'? Where is Jaune?" Their faces showed even more confusion, if that was possible.

"I can't tell you until you remember who attacked you. I need you to focus Pyrrha. Focus on your attacker."

She closed her eyes and focused. Everyone held their breath, doubt starting to spread throughout the room. The silence was so strong you could touch it until Pyrrha finally broke it.

"Torchwick."

That one word was enough for everyone in the room to officially panic. Naturally, Ozpin was the first to recover. "So what you're saying is that Jaune was not your attacker?"

Pyrrha gasped. "No! Jaune would never hurt me, why would you ask that?!"

The reactions hit the teachers like a train. Glynda, surprising everyone, starting bawling her eyes out, with Ozpin, surprising everyone again, hugging her and started crying as well. Qrow, meanwhile, went to take a sip out of his flask, but when he realized it was empty, he chucked it at the wall, shattering it in front of all of them.

The students, meanwhile, simply stood there is shock, slowly realizing the gravity of the mistake they made.

Jaune was innocent, and they'd completely betrayed him when he needed them most.

They felt disgusted with themselves. It must've shown on their face, because Pyrrha had to ask "what did you do to him?"

Qrow actually started laughing, but it was the kind of laugh that sent a chill up everyone's spine. "They gave him over to the Atlas government, that's what they did."

Pyrrha's face lit up in horror, staring at her "friends". "You did what?!"

Ruby spoke up tentatively. "Pyrrha, all the evidence pointed to him. It only made sense-"

Pyrrha was too angry to even let her finish her sentence. "No, Ruby! It doesn't make fucking sense!" They were now even more stunned then they already were. Pyrrha had never lost her cool before, so hearing her curse was astonishing. "Jaune would kill himself before he hurt me! Before he hurt any of us! How could you believe he'd try to kill me?!"

They all had no answer that, so they let Glynda and Ozpin's tears fill the room instead. Qrow cleared his throat again.

"I guess this is the best time to mention that he was kidnapped at some point."

"Kidnapped?! What do you mean?!"

"He means it literally." Ozpin had finally recovered from his crying fit. The state the Headmaster was in... it scared them, to say the least. They had never seen him with anything other than a smile or knowing smirk, even when he lost his job. To put it simply, the Headmaster looked completely broken.

He pulled into his pocket, pulling out his scroll. He wasn't even able to speak without having to sniffle. "He was taken by dark forces in an attempt to get to me."

"What do you mean dark forces?"

"CAN YOU JUST LET HIM FINISH HIS FUCKING POINT?!" Once again stunned into silence by Qrow's anger, the others looked to Pyrrha. The fact that they didn't expect the "if looks could kill" glare from Pyrrha made them wonder to themselves why they thought she'd be okay.

Qrow, meanwhile, was simply too angry to let this go on any longer. "He was kidnapped and turned into a Grimm, okay? You threw your friend to the wolves and let him be transformed into just another creature of darkness. There, are you fucking happy?" With his piece said, he handed Ozpin's scroll to Pyrrha before walking out of the room.

Pyrrha gasped, not even trying to hide the tears that came down her face. The others tried to move to see the scroll, but Pyrrha's voice silenced them all. "Get out." Her voice was low and left no room for argument. Nora, however, decided to try anyway.

"Pyrrha, listen-"

"OUT! GET THE FUCK OUT! YOU'VE HURT ME ENOUGH!"

Everyone knew better than to try to fight the rage in her voice, and everyone was out of the room as fast as they could go. With only Ozpin and Glynda still in the room, crying on each other all over again, Pyrrha could finally join in with a simple realization.

Jaune was gone forever.

Because of her friends, she was alone once again.


	2. Updates

**Hey guys. Just wanted to give an update on my stories. When I first started writing, I didn't really come up with a schedule: I just updated whenever I finished a chapter. Unfortunately, with high school, writers block, and general laziness, I don't write a whole lot. So, I have a plan that will hopefully leave most of you happy. I'm going to only focus on my stories RWBY Knight and A Grimm Tale. I've gotten more positivity from people on those stories than anywhere else, and people are really anxious about them, so I'm gonna write thm before I think about others. I'm sorry if people are disappointed, but that's the plan for now. Thanks for all the support, as well as your time.**


	3. Friends Become Enemies

It had been a stressful two weeks for Blake. Her history with the White Fang gave her basic knowledge of tracking, but not enough for a search this wide. She was literally searching almost the entire planet; how could she be expected to get any results?

Not to mention the people she now had to work with. She couldn't even call them teammates anymore with the way their team fell apart after the talk in the hospital room.

As far as she knew, aside from sleeping in the same room, none of the four of them had talked with each other, besides Yang and Ruby. They sat apart from each other at lunch and in class, scroll conversations were non-existent, and even in Team RWBY's dorm no one ever talked.

NPR was no better. Anyone who came near Pyrrha's room was led away by Ozpin and Glynda, who were the only two besides her team she allowed anywhere near her. They always said the same thing: If you go in there, we won't be able to control what she'll do to you. The fact that Pyrrha somehow forgave Nora and Ren was the only positive thing she'd seen in the past two weeks.

It was torture seeing her friends divided like this and knowing that it's mostly your fault.

 _"Well Blake, what do you think?"_

 _"There's no one on Remnant that could make a fake video this well. Everything the police said about the crime scene is shown here. It even has perfect audio. There's not a doubt in my mind that this video is real."_

She still felt disgusted that she'd believed that. The others had turned to her then, just as they did now, hoping that she would find something to prove Jaune's innocence. None of the mistakes that she made during her time with the White Fang could even come close to the one she made that day: she'd turned them against him.

Her attention had been spiked a few weeks before Pyrrha was attacked. She was watching Jaune spar with Cardin, getting his ass handed to him like he usually did. This time, though, it seemed that neither of them was getting into it. Cardin was normally laughing like a maniac around now, but this time he simply looked bored. Normally this would be weird, but the explanation was right in front of them.

In the two months they'd been there, Jaune hadn't swung his sword once in a spar.

It made absolutely no sense. Jaune had a sword and shield, and yet he never used them for offense, only defense. Whenever he did go on the attack, it was with an obscure body part like his elbows or his knees, all of which Cardin swatted away like flies. The weirder part is that Glynda would never comment on it: she would either tell Cardin to improve his attitude, or tell Jaune that his technique needed improvement. Never once talking about him not using his weapon.

After the spar, which Cardin won with literally no effort, Jaune and Pyrrha walked off to do whatever it is they did after school. Blake took the opportunity to talk with the other five members of their teams, specifically Ruby.

"Hey Ruby, have you noticed anything weird about the way Jaune fights?"

Yang, of course, didn't take it seriously at first. She gave her signature smirk and shoulder shove. "Blakey, why are you checking out Jaune, now? Am I gonna have to warn Pyrrha?"

Blake scoffed, not understanding the champion's attraction to the blonde idiot but not against it. "No, Yang, I'm being serious. Have you seen the way he fights?"

Ruby put her hand to her chin in the signature thinking pose before her face scrunched up in thought. "I'm trying to remember if I have seen him fight."

The sentence that doomed him.

Yang looked confused. "We just saw him spar. What are you talking about?"

"I mean, go all out. In spars he's always holding back for some reason.

Yang also put on a similar thinking pose before she said "That's actually a good point. Have we ever seen him really fight?"

Weiss answered. "No. Not once have we ever seen him fight."

Blake was only more confused then when she started this talk. "How could he have lasted this long without a single fight? Surely he's at least fought Grimm."

Ruby spoke up. "I've seen Jaune and his sword covered in Grimm blood. Pyrrha covered for him and said he fought well, but I didn't actually see it."

Yang turned to Ruby, surprised by the revelation. "When did Jaune get covered in Grimm blood?"

Nora cleared it up. "Initiation, remember? When they killed a Deathstalker?"

Weiss scoffed. "So they claim, but I highly doubt they killed a Deathstalker alone. It simply doesn't make sense."

"The Deathstalker doesn't matter! He was covered in blood when we fought the Nevermore. Same with Pyrrha."

Blake tried to get everyone back on track. "What do you guys think?"

Ren and Nora looked like they were starting to get nervous. They were good actors, but Blake was better at reading people. "What do you mean?"

"It's pretty obvious that Jaune's hiding his abilities. Why do you think that is?"

The bell rang then, making them split up to go to classes, but the seeds of doubt were planted with one question burning in Team RWBY's mind.

 **What is Jaune hiding?**

Then two weeks later, Jaune came back to campus shadowing a medical team, Pyrrha on a stretcher. His sword was covered in blood, causing suspicion from everyone before he calmed them down. He told the story of how they were attacked by Roman Torchwick and Torchwick stabbed her with his own sword. Everyone believed him, happy to wait for Pyrrha to recover and put the incident behind them.

Until the video came out.

With the video, Jaune was arrested by the Atlas government before anyone even knew what was happening. With the video, the rest of her team approached her hoping that she could prove it was fake. With the video, she condemned Jaune to hatred from her friends. And with the video, she divided the teams.

 _"There's not a doubt in my mind that this video is real."_

 _Silence reigned through the room. No one could believe that the innocent and naive Jaune had attacked Pyrrha (or that he managed to do that in the first place), but they trusted Blake's judgement. Well, most of them did._

 _"You're wrong." The shaking and desperate voice of Lie Ren voiced out. It was a unique experience seeing Ren show emotion, yet here he was, looking like he was about to burst from anger and sadness._

 _"Jaune wouldn't do that. I know he wouldn't. Pyrrha is his best friend. He'd die for her!"_

 _"Well I don't know what to tell you, Ren! This video is literally perfect! Do you have an explanation for this? Why would they target Jaune of all people?!"_

 _"I..." he cut himself off. He shared a look with Nora, a silent conversation passing between them before he sighed. "That's not my business to say."_

 _Yang jumped to Blake's defense. "So there is a reason? Well let's hear it!"_

 _In response, Nora jumped to Ren's defense. "He already said it's not our business to say, so back off!"_

 _Ruby got involved. "Guys, there's no reason to be angry at each other. So let's just calm down."_

 _Naturally, she was completely ignored, Yang's anger too strong to stop now. "This isn't an issue of who likes who, okay? Jaune is going to prison forever if we don't clear his name! We need to hear it!"_

 _Nora was about to respond, but Ren put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. Nora looked back, watching Ren as he jerked his head towards the door of the room. Nora got the message, and without saying anything else they walked out of the room._

 _Yang looked angrier than Blake had ever seen her, which made sense considering she'd been completely ignored and walked out on. She finally let it activate her semblance, her hair bursting into flames. "The nerve of those two! They could save his life and they're not gonna say anything?!"_

 _Ruby was desperately picking at straws, hoping to find something to justify their actions. "If Jaune has a secret, it's his to tell. We can't judge them for something we don't even know. For all we know, it would make things worse."_

 _"How could things get worse, Ruby?!"_

 _Blake ignored their argument, settling for an inner monologue._

 _ **How is it possible for someone, much less Jaune, to beat Pyrrha? She's the highest in the first and second years. Jaune, meanwhile, is at the very bottom. He can't even beat Cardin, but Pyrrha could beat his whole team without taking a hit. It makes no sense for Jaune to out of nowhere get these amazing skills worthy of beating a champion like her.**_

 _Then, a thought crossed her mind. Rather, a memory._

 _ **Weiss said it herself. We've never seen him fight. Is... is this what Jaune was hiding? Is this why he never fought?**_

 _As much as she didn't want to admit it, it made sense to her. If you were living with the enemy, you'd want them to think you were weaker than you were. At the very least, you wouldn't flat out show them what you could do._

 _ **Was Jaune evil this whole time?**_

 _"Guys", she said to silence the arguing sisters, "what if Jaune has been evil this whole time?"_

Blake shook herself out of the memory, refocusing on the task at hand.

RWY expected her to be able to magically find Jaune and bring him back, but it wasn't anywhere close to that simple. He'd literally vanished out of thin air as far as the Atlas military cared. They knew that he was picked up on an Atlas bullhead, but neither him or the bullhead were seen again. His family had denied to comment.

She'd been searching the internet at this point, hoping to find a headline or anything that gave her a clue, but there was literally nothing for her to find. For all intents and purposes, Jaune didn't exist anymore in the eyes of the public.

With a sigh, she got up from her chair in the library and started the trudge back to her room in guilty sorrow. It was the same routine every day: stay away from the room as long as she could until she forced herself to go back. There was a curfew after all.

However, today turned out much different due to the sounds coming from JNPR's old room.

RWBY's dorm was silent as always, but with her Faunus ears, she could pick up a conversation happening inside their sister team's dorm. It wouldn't have been a big deal if it wasn't for one small detail.

They were laughing. Nora and Ren were actually laughing.

She hadn't seen much of them since the incident, but what she did see suggested that they were still grieving the loss of their leader. They weren't even close to being the same way they used to be, yet here they were laughing at something.

The urge was too great, and before she knew it she was knocking on the door. The laughing abruptly stopped when Ren opened the door and saw who it was, a scowl on his face.

"What do you want, Blake?"

 **That's actually a good question.** Now that she was here, she didn't know what she was supposed to do. **I suppose honesty is the best bet.** "I was wondering how you were doing. You seemed happier in here than you are outside."

Ren looked surprised, before his eyes wandered to the bow on her head and realization struck. "We'd appreciate it if you didn't eavesdrop on us and left us alone. You've done enough damage."

Blake knew that couldn't have been more correct, but before she could turn and leave she heard Nora's scroll go off with a text and she said "Wait!" She turned back around, confused as to why she was being kicked out one second and told to stay the next, but Nora gestured to Ren with a 'come here'. Ren obliged immediately.

She showed him her scroll, presumably the text she just got, before Ren nodded and looked back to Blake. "I hear your Team asked you to find Jaune. Is that true?" She nodded. "You didn't find anything, I assume?" She nodded again.

Suddenly, her scroll went off, and pulling it out revealed a text from Ren. **A set of coordinates?** She looked back up at him, confused out of her mind, seeing a smirk on his face.

"That's Jaune's location. Good luck."

Line break

"And he wouldn't tell you how he got these coordinates?"

"No, Weiss. I tried, but he just shut me down and told me to not keep him waiting and good luck."

"Why would we need luck?"

"Something tells me he's not gonna be happy to see us Rubes. I just hope he's forgiving."

Surprisingly enough, it had been really easy to convince the others that these mysterious coordinates were Jaune's location. They were all desperate at this point to see their friend again, although now that term didn't seem right to use. More like 'known associate'.

The only annoying thing was that the coordinates sent them into the middle of the Badlands, so far away from the Kingdoms that they were close to the ocean. Blake could even smell the fish, but knew better than to let it get to her. Letting their guard down now could get them killed.

Glynda had volunteered to fly the bullhead out, giving them 30 minutes before she would return at the same spot. The coordinates were in a particularly thick group of trees, so they had been dropped off about half a mile away. With aura, however, the distance was crossed in 2 minutes flat. Now they were just looking for him.

So lost in their own thoughts were they that they didn't notice the Grimm sneaking up on them. Yang, however, noticed at the last second, but she couldn't even react with how scared she became when she looked behind her. The others didn't blame her, seeing as they had the same reaction.

The group of Grimm that had somehow managed to sneak up on them was so thick they couldn't even see the path they'd used to get there in the first place, only a thick cloud of black. They couldn't even tell individual Grimm apart from each other since they were so packed together.

Looking around them in a circle, they realized too late that this cloud had somehow managed to completely spread all around them in the few seconds they were distracted. **How were they this quick or silent?! Grimm are never this coordinated!** They were completely surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Grimm, all ready to kill them.

They all pulled out their weapons, waiting for the Grimm to make the first move, but after standing there for around 15 seconds, they realized something that should've relieved them, but only scared them more.

The Grimm weren't attacking. They were just standing there, looking at them. But they didn't even get the chance to say anything before the familiar voice that haunted all of them rang out from where they were heading.

"You actually came. I'm surprised." Jaune's voice rang out from the group of Grimm in front of them, and as they looked closer they could see the Grimm in the distance clearing a path for him as though he was their king.

"I expected you to not show up and just leave me here, waiting to pull out the welcome mat." The group of Grimm in the front finally parted, revealing a figure that, even with the hood up, was clearly Jaune. "Wouldn't be the first time you let me down."

If Ruby was affected at all by the insult, she didn't show it, instead immediately starting to run towards her friend. "Jaune!"

Any hope of Jaune forgiving them was immediately destroyed when he sucker-punched Ruby to the ground.

Ruby fell like a sack of bricks straight to the ground where she sat there, stunned at what just happened. She looked up at Jaune, scared of what she would see, and what she saw would haunt her forever.

His red eyes felt like they were staring into her soul, complemented horrifyingly by completely white skin and black hair. He looked at her with a rage that she'd never seen on another person before; not even Torchwick had ever looked so angry at her. Based on the way the others gasped behind her, they could see him too.

 **So this is why Pyrrha cried when she got that text. It must have been his picture.**

None of them could even think of moving lest they disturb the Grimm, so they simply watched as Jaune picked Ruby up and tossed her back like a piece of trash. She just sat there, crying her eyes out while nursing her cheek. Surprisingly enough, Yang was the one who eventually got brave enough to speak.

"Jaune, what is this? Why are the Grimm listening to you?"

Jaune laughed. Actually laughed, not some dramatic evil laugh. He genuinely found this funny.

"You really have no idea, do you? Ozpin never told you anything?"

"He's been too busy making sure we don't go anywhere near Pyrrha."

Jaune tilted his head in a thinking pose before he said "I'll have to thank him for that." Then, he started walking around them in a dramatic fashion, clearly enjoying himself milking this moment for all it was worth. "Anyway, this is a really freaking long story, so listen up."

He snapped his fingers, making a beowolf no bigger than Zwei run up to him and jump in his arms. Blake would've thought the scene was cute if she had no context.

"When I was about six or so, my father-" they all noticed the way he seemed to spit that word, "decided to unlock my aura and start training me. It went well, at first, until the bastard decided to give up on me." The pure anger in his voice led to him squishing the beowolf, but aside from a squeal and all four of them jumping from the sound, nothing happened.

"I ran from them. I ran into the forest nearby, hoping that I'd just die and get it over with. But then, something happened." This time, a larger beowolf came up to him and sat on its hind legs. Jaune let go of the smaller Grimm and started stroking its head without hesitation. "A Grimm found me. One of the smallest beowolves I've ever seen. Probably didn't even know what a human was at that point. I readied myself to die, but the Grimm acted just like this one. It started acting like a dog, not a creature of darkness."

Jaune paused his story and smiled. Clearly, this part of the memory was a fond one. "That guy and I played in that forest for hours. Tag, hide and seek, you name it. It was great. Then the town guard came looking for me. When he saw me playing with a Grimm, he lost his fucking mind. Started accusing me of being the devil's spawn or some shit like that. But the moment he started talking about ruining my dad's life..."

He sighed, pulling his emotions back inside. "I lost control. Something shot out of my hand and into this dude's chest. I watched as he collapsed in pain, looking like he wanted to puke up all his insides. His hair grew out everywhere and turned solid black. It was... it was horrifying. I..."

He looked back up from the beowolf, looking into their eyes with an eerie smile on his face.

"I turned him into a Grimm."


End file.
